Blog this item

When We Were Orphans

By Kazuo Ishiguro

(102)

| Paperback | 9780571225408

Like When We Were Orphans?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Book Description

England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents in Old Shanghai when he was a small boy. Now, as the world lurches towards total war,Continue

Critics

It's the way he tells it...

When We Were Orphans Kazuo Ishiguro Faber £16.99, pp313 Buy it at BOL All in all, Kazuo Ishiguro is a pretty odd novelist. His voice is studiedly anonymous, unfailingly formal and polite, even under the most dramatic circumstances. He resists and, I ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

In search of lost crimes

When We Were Orphans Kazuo Ishiguro Faber, £16.99, 313pp Buy it at BOL After the exquisitely restrained and limpid prose of his first three novels, Kazuo Ishiguro made an impressive - though to some, baffling - leap from realism into a recondite, dre ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

See all critics

7 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

I don't like it

I think it's wrong to start reading Kazuo Ishiguro with this title. The characters were poorly connected, and the plot was weak. The main character, a supposedly talented detective, was delusional - I don't know if it is what Ishiguro was trying to portray - and I found what he was doing simply poi ... (continue)

I think it's wrong to start reading Kazuo Ishiguro with this title. The characters were poorly connected, and the plot was weak. The main character, a supposedly talented detective, was delusional - I don't know if it is what Ishiguro was trying to portray - and I found what he was doing simply pointless and stupid. This really annoyed me. =(

Is this helpful?

larukucafe said on Jan 20, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

God I hate block outs

I had a 500 wor reviw typed up and was pretty satisified with it, when due to unfortunate coincidence, our family electricity supply had to be shut down temporarily and I lost the 500-word reveiw. So it's with regret and sadness that I would just say this really quick and short: When we were Orphans ... (continue)

I had a 500 wor reviw typed up and was pretty satisified with it, when due to unfortunate coincidence, our family electricity supply had to be shut down temporarily and I lost the 500-word reveiw. So it's with regret and sadness that I would just say this really quick and short: When we were Orphans is a pretty good read; especially if you are always whining about how big and delicious McDonald's hambugers always seemed when you were young, how McDonald's seems to be getting stingier by the year; It's true, they are and the burgers are smaller. Ishiguro's story linked with hamburgers, God I must be hungry. Nostalgia is always the king when it comes to Ishiguro.

Is this helpful?

razor's edge said on Feb 2, 2011 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Having enjoyed other novels by Kazu Ishiguro’s when I was offered the chance to borrow a copy of When We Were Orphans written in 2000 I decided to accept. An agreeable read which although I found slow to start with it made me think about childhood loss and how memory can play tricks.
The protagon ... (continue)

Having enjoyed other novels by Kazu Ishiguro’s when I was offered the chance to borrow a copy of When We Were Orphans written in 2000 I decided to accept. An agreeable read which although I found slow to start with it made me think about childhood loss and how memory can play tricks.
The protagonist is Christopher Banks born in Shanghai to a British couple early in the twentieth century. There he led the happy sheltered life of an expat of the time until the mysterious disappearance of his parents. The story is narrated by Christopher as now some twenty years later he is living in London, having been sent to England after becoming an orphan.
He comes over as a bumbling tragic character and it is difficult to imagine him as the well respected detective he has become.
Since the age of nine when he was orphaned Christopher has always been haunted by the unresolved case of his parents disappearance, which he has always believed was a kidnapping. Having become a detective he is now more than ever determined to return to Shanghai and solve the case, despite the fact that the city is now under attack by the Japanese Army.
His memories of the city and the difficulties he encounters especially in trusting the people around him make this latter part of the novel much more atmospheric reading than the earlier parts.
By the end I was thoroughly drawn in to the story that had slowly built and which the author manages to bring to a convincing conclusion.

Is this helpful?

Lindyloumac said on Feb 3, 2010 | Add your feedback